[Milsurplus] W2NSD - OT

[antqradio at juno.com]

Ray
No offence taken here.  Just lamenting the state of affairs in consumer
electronics.

Very interesting about the microwave course.  I am originally from New
Jersey and my college education was slanted toward RF and microwave. 
Worked as a design or manufacturing engineer (depending on company) for
RCA Laboratories, MSC (Microwave Semiconductor Corporation), Sarnoff
Corporation, Anadigics and later Ericsson in RTP, North Carolina.  Of
course, RCA and Sarnoff are redundant and I guess you can say that all of
the above were RCA inspired, well except for Ericsson.  The problem I
faced with peace breaking out was the closing of so many RF and microwave
companies in the New Jersey area.

School-wise, having a partnership with local industry seem to be the key
to success.  The downside, for technicians at least, is that the programs
become tailored for the industrial partnership team members.  My problem
here was that there is not much local industry that is technology driven.
 Hot Springs (population 35,750) is a tourist and retirement driven
economy.  With so many Vo-Techs combining with Community Colleges and
changing over to the college course time schedule, there isn't enough
time to cover vital (and fundamental) information.  The meat of many
courses, along with many circuit theorems, general tricks of circuit
analysis and such are not taught.  There is just no time to do it all. 
Things seem so watered down, there is no bench or lab time in the
schedule.  Don't get me started about the degree of preparation the
student has out of high school.  It is nonexistent in math and sciences. 
I feel that as a society, we are shooting ourselves in the foot!

Getting back to the progress seen in consumer electronics, it didn't take
quite as long for cell phones to be dominated by a few manufacturers. 
Just love that pick and place machinery.  What was once said about the
Federal Government and the GPO letting the presses run a few more billion
dollars off is surely true about pick and place!  As a consumer, I
appreciate the low cost of electronics.  As an engineer, I marvel at the
short design cycles, tough specs and the high part volumes.  As an
instructor, I worry about how the next generation will be able to afford
all these fine things on minimum wage jobs.

How does that Chinese proverb go?  May you be cursed to live in
interesting times!

Regards,
Jim


On Tue, 13 Jul 2004 11:45:52 -0400 "Ray Fantini"
<RAFANTINI at salisbury.edu> writes:
> Really sorry to hear about that, I work at a university here in
> Salisbury Md and we are doing a little better in the field. We just
> started a microwave engineering program a couple years back and have
> close relations with the community college in town, although it appears
> that they are into this new idea of dumping regular faculty and
> replacing them with adjuncts. also we have some help in developing the
> engineering program with a couple microwave manufactures here in town 
>(K&L, Comtec ) as manufactures they tell me they have issues trying to
> fill engineering positions and are tired of having to grow their own
engineers.
> I have always regarded W2NSD stuff as entertaining, fun to read, and
> not much more then that. but did not intend to offend in any way.
> Ray Fantini
> 
>